Unlocking Global Collaboration to accelerate innovation for Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Oxford, United Kingdom, 20-21 June 2013 — This Expert Consultation aims to stimulate discussion and the highest possible level of expert engagement in setting out an agenda for OECD action to accelerate innovation for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Country experts, policy makers and other stakeholders will share views on the main scientific, technological and policy challenges Alzheimer’s and dementia raise and discuss how to move forward with developing concrete ideas for OECD action.

Recent releases

Measuring Patent Quality: Indicators of Technological and Economic Value, 6 June 2013 — This working paper contributes to the definition and measurement of patent quality by proposing a wide array of indicators to capture the technological and economic value of patented inventions and their possible impact on subsequent technological developments. In addition, the detailed dataset, as well as the program codes to compile the indicators, are now publicly available.

International Mobile Roaming Agreements, 3 June 2013 — International roaming differs from other telecommunication services in that the wholesale and downstream retail markets are always in different countries, making it difficult for policy makers and regulators to act unilaterally. Prices for roaming remain very high across the OECD area compared to those prevailing nationally and international co-operation is vital to address this challenge. This digital economy paper explores principles that could form the basis for good practices in the establishment of international mobile roaming agreements between two or more countries.

Interconnected economies: Benefiting from global value chains, 30 May 2013 — International production, trade and investments are increasingly organised across countries via global value chains (GVCs). A new OECD book and its synthesis report examine the policy areas related to the rise of global value chains. They are accompanied by 40 data-driven country notes covering: participation in GVCs; distribution of value-added; export shares in GVCs; and competitiveness in manufacturing and services.

Stimulating Economic Growth through Knowledge-Based Investment, 22 May 2013 — Recent studies have shown that knowledge-based capital (KBC) is an important source of economic growth in many of the world’s advanced economies — much more so than R&D alone — and is positively correlated with real GDP per capita in a cross-section of these economies. While literature is still in its infancy and there is, as yet, no systematic discussion of KBC policy, this working paper attempts to start filling the gap.

Recent events

OECD Meeting at Ministerial Level (MCM), Paris, France, 29-30 May 2013 — In a very packed agenda on the theme“It’s all about people: Jobs, Equality, Trust”, Ministers at the 2013 MCM welcomed the OECD’s analysis and advice in the field of new innovative sources of growth, notably knowledge-based capital; the OECD’s work on Global Value Chains (GVCs) and on measuring Trade in Value Added terms. Ministers recognised GVCs as a powerful driver of growth and productivity and support for job creation; and called on the OECD for further analysis of the relationship between GVCs and jobs and income, as well as of how to make GVCs accessible to all. Here is the direct link to Ministerial Council Statements.